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Taking Philly Back
Log Title: Taking Philly Back Characters: Cookie, Kamakura, Poise, Sinatra Location: Philadelphia Date: October 4, 2018 TP: America Burning TP Summary: A team of Joes sneak into Philadelphia to liberate the city. Category:2018 Category:Logs As logged by '' Cookie Log session starting at 16:27:41 on Thursday, 4 October 2018. ' ' Warehouse What was once a plain, empty warehouse has been converted into a temporary living and work space. At one end of the building, a kitchenette has been installed with a combination countertop and breakfast bar for both cooking and eating at. A section of the warehouse has been curtained off and contains some cots and some storage bins. There's a bathroom with a stand-up shower. All the amenities of home, provided you don't mind giant fans running overhead. ' ' In the middle of the vast open space are two large cages made of fine mesh fencing wrapped around some sturdy wood framing. Inside the cages are two disabled BATs and plenty of tools. ' ' Cookie has cleared some room on a table and spread out a map of Philadelphia on it. On one of the still cluttered benches, she's working on some radio gear. ' ' Sinatra, on the other hand, is playing with his rats over in one corner. ' ' Cookie finishes up a few more adjustments and sighs. It'll have to be good enough. "I hope our information is right," she says, softly. ' ' Sinatra nods "Ya man so do I..." she agrees. "Would be... problems if not. What'cha workin on?" ' ' Cookie gives Sinatra a smile. "Radio jammers. With all the BATs around, they could throw up an alarm pretty quickly unless we cut 'em off. They'll still fight without communication, but they can't radio back alerts." ' ' Sinatra nods "Good thinking." he says. "Need every advantage we can get!" ' ' Cookie nods. "Mainframe and I figured out how to triangulate their signal. I'm -pretty- sure we've narrowed down the area where the local command center is, but in a city like this one, a few blocks either way can be a lot of territory." ' ' Sinatra nods "Yeah man, I know." A pause. "You got any scent samples of what we might be lookin' for? I got fifteen really good noses..." He motions to one of his rats ' ' Cookie hehs. "It's pretty much BATs and more electronics. I don't know what kind of human personnel they've got stationed to watch it." ' ' Sinatra nods, with a frown. "Pity." ' ' Cookie nods. "Yeah. I'm hoping it's just a couple of Televipers, but you never know." ' ' Philadelphia is patrolled by androids and held under Cobra's sway, communications cut off and an unknown number of Vipers occupying the police stations and city hall. Joes gather in a small warehouse in the sparsely patrolled shipping district of the occupied city, getting into gear and preparing to take the city back. ' ' Kamakura is on survelance, watching the BATs get into position. Still and silent as well, a ninja. ' ' Cookie packs up gear into a backpack. Miniaturization has come along way, but any kind of radio gear strong enough to override other signals is still pretty heavy just from power requirements alone. She grunts as she slings it on her back. "Okay, the hard part is going to be getting downtown without getting stopped. This stuff should keep the BATs and any Cobra from radioing in for help, but if it breaks I'm not sure I could get it fixed in time to stop a real Charlie Foxtrot." ' ' The Nebulan Poise has lent her aid again to the GI Joe forces. After seeing the city-wide assault earlier by Cobra, it reminded her of somewhere far off. Her tone is as high-pitched as always, "WellI don't know who this Charlie Foxtrot is but I don't think you'll be worse for wear for radio usage." She fiddles with her sensor array on her hovercycle, "I should be able to help patch things through....even though I really shouldn't be doing so." That's the third or fourth time she had self-admonished for lending outside tech aid to the Joe forces, remarking that 'the Hive'll know eventually'. She hops up into her cycle, and its anti-grav engines kick on, "I'll be doing visual sweeps to see where I can help." ' ' Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - USA ' ' Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the fifth-most populous city in the United States, with an estimated population of 1,567,442 and more than 6 million in the seventh-largest metropolitan statistical area, as of 2015. Philadelphia is the economic and cultural anchor of the Delaware Valley -- a region located in the Northeastern United States at the confluence of the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers with 7.2 million people residing in the eighth-largest combined statistical area in the United States. ' ' Kamakura is still watching the BATs, making sure they stay in place and dont move somewhere they're not supposed to. He radios "Give me a signal and I can move in on them." ' ' Optics light up before Poise as her holographic display pops up, "What? Like me pointing you at a target to go get? Like....how many at a time are we talking about?" ' ' Outside the warehouse there's a handful of vehicles waiting, mostly heavy duty trucks. Cookie gets into one and sets her backpack with its gear carefully down on the passenger seat. "Let's get this show on the road!" At least with the local curfew being enforced, there's not as much traffic along the way. She moves into position. ' ' There are BATs on every intersection. While that's few and far between back in the warehouse district, that's a lot of androids downtown. A few Vipers are out and about, too, mostly near city hall and the downtown police station. Plenty of targets, which is part of the problem. Every hit has to count. ' ' Kamakura radios back "Finding a target isn't hard, picking the right one when the chasos begins,thats the problem." ' ' Joe Poise says, "Well, I can forward video feed to most of you without any problems, I imagine. I'll leave it to you to decide who to take out. My ride here is a bit noisy if you're talking about being stealthy." Joe Poise says, "Sound okay?" ' ' Joe Cookie says, "I'm more or less in position. I'm going to try to narrow down where the command center for the androids is. I'll let you know when I figure it out." ' ' Joe Kamakura says, "right. There is a lot of them. Gotta make that opener count." ' ' Cookie takes out some of the gear, tracking the radio signals. This isn't her usual role, but cross training is a fact of life in any special unit. She's close, now, so it should be easier to triangulate. She hopes. GAME: Cookie PASSES a TECHNICAL roll of Very High difficulty. ' ' Poise shrugs lightly, << I mean...yeah? So how much actual combat are we trying to ruck up here?>> She flicks a holo-switch on her green hovercycle and moves a hand forward, imitating classic cycle handlebar controls. The cycle moves quietly, pivoting as she turns to a side street, and flies overhead of many of the parked cars here, <> GAME: Poise PASSES a TECHNICAL roll of High difficulty. ' ' Joe Cookie says, "I've got a strong signal over here. *gives address*" ' ' Joe Poise says, "Alright. I shouldn't have any interference, Neb-Tech is pretty durable. I see a lack of activity over this way." ' ' GAME: Kamakura PASSES a DEXTERITY roll of Average difficulty. Joe Kamakura says, "allright Im moving in" Kamakura starts to move in on one of the BAT units,creeping on a rooftop right behind it. He waits until another BAT is in line and throws a rock at it, trying to make it look like it came from its ally. Lets see if we can make them shoot at each other. ' ' Cookie and Poise narrow down where the action is, and Kamakura does his ninja thing, slipping past the BATs with silent skill. A quick diversion, and the BAT that was struck with the rock turns. "Battle Android Trooper under attack," it announces and attempts to locate the attacker. "This unit will use force to defend itself. Show yourself to be detained." It aims in the general vicinity of the next BAT, but does not fire yet. Still, it's a distraction. ' ' Joe Poise says, "Oh hey, I know! I'll work on that movement algorithm I was using. Predict troop movements" ' ' Poise hums to herself, <> She clicks on her datadrive, and uses her hand Tony Stark style to brush past files, <> GAME: Poise FAILS an INTELLIGENCE roll of Above Average difficulty. ' ' Joe Poise says, "That....is not working, unless all these robots are being sucked into a black hole currently" Joe Poise says, "too much to hope for?" ' ' Cookie slips out of the truck and sneaks as best she can over to the building where the BAT controlling signals are coming from. It looks like a restaurant, but there's not a lot of business there with the city on lockdown. Perfect cover otherwise. Cookie looks for the main power line to shut down the whole building. But hopefully not the hospital just a few blocks away. GAME: Cookie PASSES an INTELLIGENCE roll of High difficulty. ' ' Joe Cookie says, "Yeah, we'd notice if a black hole appeared. I think I got the power on their command center, though, so they should be easy prey without anybody to coordinate them." ' ' Joe Poise says, "well...TECHNICALLY you wouldn't, because all light'd be absorbed into it. But I digress. So you cut the power, and we rush em before backups go on, thats the plan?" ' ' Joe Cookie says, "Yup. Smash while the smashing is good. If there's any humans, try to take captives instead of shooting to kill. But the androids are fair game." ' ' Joe Poise says, "well yeah, I mean that'd make me a war criminal..." Joe Poise says, "can a case be made that these BATs are sapient?" ' ' Joe Kamakura says, "They're BATs. I dont think so. They look like humans but they're just walking weapons carriers. Im going to drop down and take a few out." ' ' Joe Cookie says, "I think only Over Kill is really capable of thinking for itself." ' ' Kamakura drops down from his rooftop, mkaing his way to the streets. He drops into a manhole, moving towards the BATs. time to take out a few machines. GAME: Kamakura FAILS a DEXTERITY roll of Very High difficulty. ' ' Kamakura drops down to attack some BATs, but even a ninja stumbles sometimes. The nearest androids detect a sound behind them and scan for the ninja, at least a couple of them locating him. He's in a dangerous position now. ' ' Fortunately, Cookie does manage to isolate the power and gets in with some large bolt cutters and some well insulated gloves. The building shuts down, and the BATs, while intimidating, are now on their own in terms of strategy. The BATs aim for Kamakura. "Do not move. Surrender," the androids order. ' ' Joe Poise says, "Is the system down? I sort of expected an explosion" ' ' Joe Cookie says, "Why would a computer blow up if it's not getting power anymore?" ' ' Joe Poise says, "I don't know! Everything here involves giant explosions everywhere." Joe Poise says, "Sheesh" ' ' Joe Cookie says, "The building and everything in it's offline. I can do that without blowing anything up." ' ' All banter aside, Poise frowns as her life's work program doesn't really extrapolate to logistics that well. Go figure. She hits a high boost, and lights atop a two story building. Her system picks up several BAT forms, highlighting them on her map, after she selects a large group of them to go towards, it even tells her how to move. <> WIth that, she ramps off of the roof, her cycle covering a lot of ground quickly. <> She leans forwards shaking her fist as she approaches some disoriented BATs, then vectorslides her cycle right into the side of them. GAME: Poise PASSES a COURAGE roll of Extreme difficulty. ' ' Cookie slams the back door of the building open (electronic locks failing safe to let people out in emergencies, gotta love it) and takes out her service pistol, charging inside to take down any humans manning the station. She cradles a flashbang and pitches it ahead of her. Here comes the explosions Poise was expecting. ' ' GAME: Cookie FAILS a FIREPOWER roll of High difficulty. GAME: Cookie FAILS a FIREPOWER roll of High difficulty. ' ' Kamakura sighs. "Well.. so much for our sneak attack.." he lunges at the BAT closes to him, trying to take it down. GAME: Kamakura PASSES a STRENGTH roll of High difficulty. ' ' Poise mashes though a crowd of androids, flattening them with the bulk of her hovercycle. The rest attempt to regroup, but they have nobody at the helm and begin firing at anything that looks like a target. Kamakura takes full advantage of the disarray to cut some metallic minions down. Meanwhile, Cookie's flashbang falls short of the room with the local televiper crew. They were confused before, but now they know what's going on- they're being attacked! They begin to return fire as the element of surprise is lost. ' ' GAME: Sinatra PASSES a COURAGE roll of Immense difficulty. Suddenly, the roar of a Rolls-Royce diesel engine rips through the air. Its source is unclear for a moment before an Alvis Stalwart simply erupts from a freeway underpass. The dark green, APOPO-marked vehicle actually gets air as it reaches the crest, all six wheels off the ground. "Mungu wangu!" He yelps, before the ancient British amphibious truck strikes sparks from its undercarriage, The swim-board comes off the front and cartwheels away under the vehicle as it bounces from the suspension recoil. ' ' He wrenches the wheel to get the huge vehicle around a corner, managing to make the huge great thing slide to get it around the bend. It's actually going sideways when it reaches the BATs, the wide side of the vehicle smashing them aside or knocking them down to be ground beneath the Rat Bus' wheels. It's at this point that Sinatra loses control of the vehicle for a moment, the vehicle's slow, ponderous turning continuing intil it's facing back the other way... and then onwards until it slides sideways, neatly, into a parking space. There's a moment of panic as the vehicle hits the curb side-on, the other side's wheels lifting off the ground for a moment before the vehicle rocks gently back onto all six, the amber beacon on the top still sweeping around. ' ' There's a moment of silence, before Sinatra leans out of the window, looking at the parked car infront of him. He looks back at the one behind, and laughs. "What did he say in that movie? Oh! Like a glove!" ' ' Joe Leader of the Rat Pack, Sinatra says, "Like a glove!" ' ' Cookie stands her ground even though she's the only Joe actually in this bulding and outnumbered by the vipers shooting back. She takes her time, aiming in spite of the return fire. Even breaths, don't miss your mark. Gotta take a stand and bring these snakes down. GAME: Cookie PASSES a COURAGE roll of Very High difficulty. ' ' Joe Cookie says, "Hey! Glad you made it!" ' ' Kamakura takes sinatra's entrance as a distraction. He starts to move after another BAT group, trying to slam them into each other. "Now thats the way to do it! Keep it up!" GAME: Kamakura PASSES a STRENGTH roll of Very High difficulty. ' ' The BATs open fire around Poise. Her cycle moves and rotates even as she stands up. Its not automatically dodging attacks against her, or anything, but her movement is enough to help throw off tracking a little. And with four BATs still active, this close to her? Her auto-cannon wasn't going to be much good. "ALRIGHT! You non-sapient so-and-sos don't get an easy lunch here!" She stands up in her seat, and puts her foot on the vehicle's side. She was going to have to out-fight them and fast. Meaning she had to be faster on the draw, and bold enough to get it done. ' ' Bold, she could do. ' ' Poise raises up her Neb Pistol, a holo-targetting array outfitted on it, before shooting at the first BAT, green plasma sparking off of it. "I've disassembled better robots than you in Lab 201!" She fires again at the second one, her high pitched voice making any sense of real badassery a bit muted, "And why does everyone put their optical arrays in the head? It should be more heavily armored." ZAP! ZAP!! She fires off at the fourth one, "Your processing centers were made by the lowest bidder!" GAME: Poise PASSES a COURAGE roll of Above Average difficulty. ' ' Sinatra makes a dramatic and welcome entrance, breaking up the clustering BATs and giving Kamakura room to fight. Poise also neatly and loudly dispatches those closest to her. Between the three of them, the street is soon clear. ' ' In the building, Cookie manages to outlast the televipers. She takes a couple of hits, but delivers more than she takes. The Cobra operatives give up and run, diving out the windows. They're geeks, not real warriors like Alley-Vipers are. It's fortunate that this is 'just' a midwestern city, not someplace strategically vital like, say, Washington DC. With the main cluster of BATs cleared out and the Vipers getting out of Dodge, there's not enough left to stand in the way of the Joes. ' ' Joe Poise says, "and here's one for your manufacturing lines!" Joe Poise says, "Honestly, who develops robots to be humanoid in design when there's far more efficient choices?" ' ' Joe Leader of the Rat Pack, Sinatra chuckles "No idea... hooboy... gonna have to rebuild the underside of my truck I think." ' ' Joe Cookie says, "I've looked at the old models. It looks like they used to have these big glass boxes in the center where you could see their innards and shoot them out." Joe Cookie says, "I think I'm going to need to see a Corpsman after this, though. Ow. All the Vipers got away." ' ' Joe Kamakura says, "They're spooked and know we can attack from anywhere. That's something." ' ' Joe Poise says, "Huff Huff....phew....well that was exhilarating" ' ' Joe Cookie says, "Yeah. We got a city back. Good job, everybody." ' ' Joe Poise says, "Oh I figure you've probably got a least a week of city fighting to go, but....yah things look good today." Joe Poise says, "I figure this evens us up for you guys stitching me up that time at sea." ' ' Joe Cookie says, "More than, Poise. Thanks for coming." ' ' Joe Poise says, "well...yeah." ' ' Joe Poise says, "I mean I know I've said this a lot, but one of these days its going to go bad, me helping you all." Joe Poise says, "but well..." ' ' It's at this moment that the Rat Bus decides it's had quite enough. There's a somewhat nasty-sounding BANG from somewhere inside it, and a few pieces of metal get shot out of the exhaust, before the engine quits completely. Sinatra laughs, hopping down from the rat bus. "Definitely gonna need to look at the Rat Bus." He laughs, then goes to check on his rats ' ' Joe Leader of the Rat Pack, Sinatra says, "Maybe on that day we'll be able to return a favour, hey?" ' ' Joe Poise says, "I'm starting to regret not trying to stop the Hive back when they were just a Corporation...you know?" ' ' Cookie staggers a bit as she heads back to her truck to get to the radio gear. Time to call out and report this in. There's still plenty to do, yet, but the grip Cobra has is broken here, and that's an opportunity. One step closer to a liberated America. ' ' Joe Leader of the Rat Pack, Sinatra says, "I understand regrets, miss Poise. Trust me I do." ' ' Joe Poise says, "mmmh" ' ' Poise pulls her helmet off, and slicks her hair back. She remarks, annoyed. "Six eons years of technology and my hair still mats down inside my helmet if I breathe too hard. Feh." ' ' Cookie finishes calling in her initial field report and takes a moment to break open a first aid kit so she can wrap her arm. Definitely gotta get that treated soon. ' ' Sinatra opens up the cages. Everyone needs a walk after /that/ parking trick. He looks at the spot, laughing. "I could not do that again if I tried it." He declares, his little horde of squeakies following him along as he goes to check on Cookie and Poise. ' ' Joe Leader of the Rat Pack, Sinatra says, "First thing we should put out on the news… please don' hurt the bomb-sweepin' rats. We're your friends!" ' ' Joe Kamakura says, "haha. Right!" ' ' Joe Cookie says, "Cute rats saving the city! I can get with that." ' ' Joe Poise says, "the Gambian Pouch Gambit" ' ' Cookie waves with her uninjured hand as she notices Sinatra and his tiny horde coming her way. ' ' Joe Leader of the Rat Pack, Sinatra chuckles "Yeah, I like that." ' ' Sinatra smiles "Looks nasty. You OK?" He says. "Blew the guts out the bottom of the rat-bus or I'd offer to give you a lift to the medics." ' ' Joe Poise says, "well, I hope I can get back to livestreaming eventually, I've had to keep that down of late, I may not be able to do any more on the planet here, as I don't want to draw any more ire from your baddies" ' ' Cookie gives Sinatra a tired smile "A couple of holes in my arm. Clean, at least. But I'm going to need some stitching I think." She pats the truck that she's leaning on. "This thing didn't get hit, but I probably shouldn't drive." ' ' Sinatra nods and looks at the truck. "I probably could. But you sure you want me drivin'?" He laughs. "Let me at least put a dressing on - I can only do basic first aid, but we should be stoppin' the bleeding." ' ' Cookie nods and shifts so Sinatra can get at the arm. It's been wrapped with some clean gauze, but not very neatly. Hard to do properly with just one hand. "It might not be too bad, but the only reason I'm standing up is the truck," she admits. "Now that the fighting's over, I feel it." ' ' Sinatra nods and takes the dressing off, replacing it with a fresh one - and with proper pressure on it, to stop the bleeding. "You did pretty good." He smiles. "Let's get you to a corpsman. They should be hittin' the city limits about now." ' ' Cookie doesn't even bother to go around the truck, she just slides in the driver side and then keeps going until she can settle on the passenger seat, carefully moving the backpack of tech gear to the footwell. "Sounds like a plan." ' ' Sinatra climbs up himself, followed by his rats - who line up along the top of the dash. He's a lot more careful as he drives this time. "Sorry it took me so long to get here." ' ' Cookie huffs a tired laugh. "You made it. We won. That's what matters." ' ' Sinatra smiles "Fair enough, thank you." ' ' Kamakura nods "Yean and we'll win back more of em." he says over the radio. ' ''' Sinatra smiles "Yeah. It'll be a tough fight, but we will." Log session ending at 21:04:08 on Thursday, 4 October 2018.